RIAA: Andersen’s new complaint ignores judge’s instructions

The RIAA has yet to file a reply to former P2P defendant Tanya Andersen's …

After having her first complaint dismissed, exonerated former RIAA target Tanya Andersen refiled an amended complaint in her malicious prosecution lawsuit against the record labels earlier this month at the judge's request. Instead of filing an answer to Andersen's complaint, the RIAA is asking the presiding judge to dismiss the new complaint. Should the judge choose not to dismiss the "verbose, confused and redundant complaint," the RIAA would like some additional time to file a response.

The RIAA's request was made in a filing late last week, one in which it argued that Andersen's attorney, Lory Lybeck, ignored the judge's instructions. Andersen has filed a "massive" 108-page, 353-paragraph amended complaint that the RIAA says is "long on rhetoric, hyperbole, and scandalous allegations" and does not heed the judge's direction to file a "plain and concise" complaint.

Although the record labels were willing to spend well over two years prosecuting their unsuccessful lawsuit against Andersen, they are now seeking to resolve Andersen v. Atlantic "as expeditiously as possible." One such expeditious resolution would be a dismissal of Andersen's new complaint, the RIAA argues, citing a couple of cases where refiled complaints where dismissed for not following a judge's directions. "Indeed, under very similar circumstances, complaints significantly shorter than that filed by Plaintiff have been dismissed for failure to comply with the district court’s order granting leave to amend and Rule 8."

Andersen was originally sued for copyright infringement by the RIAA in 2005. After the labels decided to dismiss the lawsuit, she fought back with her lawsuit which accuses MediaSentry, the record labels, and the RIAA of negligence. The RIAA and the Settlement Support Center that handles the settlement letters are also accused of intentional infliction of emotional distress, RICO violations, conspiracy, unlawful trade practices, and a handful of other wrongs.

Tanya Andersen

In an interview just before the amended complaint was filed, Lybeck told Ars that he planned on taking advantage of the discovery process to look into agreements between the RIAA, its member companies, MediaSentry, and the Settlement Support Center. The RIAA's latest filing shows that it is poised to fight attempts at discovery tooth and nail, as the labels believe that "the vast majority" of Andersen's allegations can be addressed with "little or no discovery."

After reading through the RIAA's filing last week as well as a 68-page transcript of the February 13 hearing where Judge Anna J. Brown dismissed Andersen's first complaint, I decided to reread the "massive" 108-page amended complaint filed by Andersen (all of the documents are available on PACER; Threat Level also has a PDF available, and David Kravets covered the RIAA's filing on Friday). Part of the massiveness the RIAA objects to comes from Lybeck's attempts to adhere to the judge's instructions to explicitly lay out both the allegations and claims for release. The vast majority of Andersen's 18 claims for relief go into a fair amount of supporting detail. (The 18th claim seeks an injunction barring the RIAA from "continuing to engage in criminal investigation of private American citizens.")

Both parties would like to see this case wrapped up quickly (but obviously with different results). Given the scope of Andersen's amended complaint and the RIAA's response seeking (at the very least) additional time to respond, that appears to be an unlikely outcome.

Update

In a docket entry made today, Judge Anna J. Brown noted her agreement with some of the RIAA's criticism's of Andersen's amended complaint. Andersen will have until April 10 to file a third amended complaint "consistent with the Court's directions during the hearing on February 11, 2008" if she desires, with a status conference scheduled a few days later.